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Trying to get back into focusing on me and my program and thought I'd see what others do as forms of meditation..........This is a very new idea to me and I have some ideas but would like to broaden my horizons so to speak:) Thanks for the input......
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Put down the magnifying glass and pick up the mirror!
My meditation practice begins first thing in the morning. (When I wake up, it is my goal that HP is in my head before I am!!!) So, I roll out of bed to sit in a comfy chair, my spine needs to be upright and straight. I close my eyes and I take some cleansing breaths, trying to focus on any discomfort in my body... I may need to re-position myself in the chair. Sometimes I notice there is discomfort from holding fear or anxiety somewhere in my body.... I let my in-breath go there... and I release it with the out-breath/exhale.
And, as I am getting comfortable and settling in... I sometimes begin with a visualization... of seeing myself as beautiful, my face sparkling, happy, joyous and free. And then, I pay attention to my breath. Any other thoughts entering into my head, I try to dismiss, letting them go out as easily as they came in. (Some days, I find I have quite a "monkey-mind," but I keep practicing, there is no "bad" meditation.)
And, I continue to focus on my beautiful breath... This is basically all meditation is. As I get more and more comfortable, I notice how my breath "fills me." I watch how it goes deep down into my abdomen on an in-breath... and the out-breath rises up... massaging my spine... rising into my head/my "crown." And then the in-breath goes down into my abdomen again, over and over. It is so lovely to pay attention to this, something that happens without our control... we're simply allowing ourselves to quiet down and be still enough to recognize it. And then, I begin to recognize that it is consciousness being aware of Consciousness itself! I recognize the temple that my body is... that my HP is with me!!!
This is how I improve my conscious contact with my HP (step 11.) Meditation has changed me, I am much more calm than I was before I began the practice. There are many variations, sometimes I include mantras, and other visualizations. My practice has changed over time, taking on a life of its own. You can find lots of books about meditation, but basically, it's focusing on your breath and controlling/dismissing the thoughts entering the mind.... and sitting in HP's presence. For me, it carries over into my day, helping me to control my negative thinking, and when I get stressed, I go back to my breath, back with my HP.
I hope you give it a try, again and again, it is yet another "practice."
Many blessings!
Love, gladlee
-- Edited by glad lee at 11:57, 2008-12-27
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The prayer isn't for Higher Power to change our lives, but rather to change us.
My meditation is similar to Gladlee's. I just try to sit quietly and clear my mind of the hum of background noise in it. Its a way to let go of the consuming thoughts and quiet the chaos in my mind that makes it hard to hear the soft voice of my HP speaking to me. My HP is very persistant, but never loud. If I want to hear, I have to get quiet and listen.
Sometimes I focus my thoughts on some time, a flower, something sitting on my dresser, or whatever is handy. Sometimes I consentrate on a bitof music. Sometimes I work calmly and slowly at conciously at letting go of negative thoughts as they intrude, one at a time until I get some clarity.
Whatever you try, I suggest that you practice it every day for, say, a couple of weeks before you give up. Meditation, however you do it, takes practice. You will probably not feel that you have been successful the first few times you try it. Just keep at it. Like most of this program, it works if you work it, and you are worth the effort it takes.
In recovery,
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~Jen~
"When you come to the edge of all you know you must believe in one of two things... there will be earth on which to stand or you will be given wings." ~Unknown
Meditation for me has evolved into the 24/7 practice of staying aware and in focus of Spiritual truths no matter what I am doing. Whether I am working, playing, relaxing or sleeping I keep the momentum of staying within Spiritual truths...such as; When I found out in Al-Anon that I had never out distanced my HP while the disease was raging or whether it wasn't I came to believe the truth that my HP was then and still is always with me. Now 24/7 I am constantly living within that fact. When I became aware of the fact that along side of the awareness that I am human I also know and believe the fact that I am a Child of God also. I am not perfect I am progressing. I never loose that awareness. When I rise in the morning I know I don't arise into nothingness or into a restart of a new day. I have just completed a period of rest and during that period of time I am existing in the spiritual realm of my HP and allowed to be there while my body attempts some relaxation. 24/7 I am aware that I am created for happiness. It's a fact because I always am at peace with everything around me when I am happy. When I am no happy my meditation becomes abstract, negative and fractured. When that happens I get back on to the meditation of the fact of happiness.
When I first learned from my sponsor that meditation could be done and I should learn how to, meditate 24/7 regardless of what was going on "outside" of myself I thought he was a bit off center and still I realized that I was the newcomer and the student. He obviously was practicing it in his life and had a life and character I also wanted. So today my meditation is about centering the inside of me regarless of what is going on outside of me and I can tell you for a fact...just for me, that is how it works.
I've tried meditating while I was relaxing and each and every time I would go to sleep and reach no other awareness than it was a darn good way of getting some shut eye.
I have arrived at the awareness that I am not just material and that my HP most easily meet on the level of spirituality where I am most easily affected.
I gonna listen to the responses following. I can always learn something new.
Qi Gong is great. I run. I sit in silent meditation with the idea that all my thoughts and "monkey mind" are boats on a river that float away. When a thought comes into my brain during mediation, I place it on a boat and let it float away- every single one of them and in between the boats are wonderful long pauses/minutes of bliss and nothingness and pure exalted emptiness. Centering Prayer (google this) is something I have done to great results and so have others. Its a very ancient form of christian meditation.
I also walk a lot and do not use my car very much- I get massages as often as possible. I find that when my mind is in overdrive, it helps a lot for my body to meet that/match that and that movement really releases my mind in ways nothing else does. Its so healthy too!
Also, I keep certain thoughts and awarenesses with me always, too, like Jerry described. The putting stuff on the boats and letting them float away helps so much in visualizing detachment. Hugs, J.
I find a quiet comfortable place, I close my eyes and focus on the warm glow inside me that I feel is a piece of my HP. I focus on expanding that warm glow so it reaches far past my physical body. I imagine being filled with white light from my HP and the energy reaching far into the ground to keep me grounded and centred. Only after I do that do I hear what my HP has to say to me.
